I CAN'T CHOOSE...

for you. I can only choose for me.
I just finished up the book of Joshua today.
Joshua gives his final speech and tells them to choose for themselves.
He knew what he was going to choose.
The tribes, the children, the kiddos, had to choose for themselves.
That is so hard.
It must have been hard for him.
To recant all that God has delivered them from.
To remind them how they were brought out of the "house of bondage", and how every good thing the Lord had spoken over them came to pass.
Then to say, okay, you choose for yourself.
But we all come to that point, don't we?
Either as the one choosing or the one allowing someone else to choose.
Just like the children of Israel, there will come a day when we (and our kids and family) will have to choose for ourselves whom we will serve.
A day when we have to make our faith our own. When that relationship with Christ goes from the head knowledge we received from others to the heart knowledge we have gained on our own.
One day we will have to choose to pick a side of the fence and quit trying to live on foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.
Don't think for one second by not choosing you aren't choosing.
By not choosing Christ, you are choosing death. Plain and simple.
Sadly, not all of our loved ones will choose Christ.
Not just family, but friends we care deeply about.
I can't choose for them.
I can choose to pray for them. I can choose to continue bring them before the throne of grace and intercede for them, but I can't make that choice for them.
Even for my own boys, there will be a day when they must choose for themselves.
In college I had a dream one night that I knew I had to choose.
(Note I am not one prone to dreams and visions so when I have one that I have remembered for 20+ years it is a big deal)
In my dream I was lost in a world torn up physically. The road I was on was cracked and buckled. It was dark. It appears I was under some kind of tram track. I was calling out for my mom and she was no where to be found. I never saw His face in the dream, just the glory of His robe and a cross. His sweet voice said " I am going to put you at the foot of my cross". I knew. I was on my own. My mom could not do it for me anymore. It is me and it is Him. We are the ones who have to finally work this thing out.
There have been times over the past 20 years where that dream has been recalled to me. Troubles have happened that have sent me to the foot of that cross.
It has been my choice to kneel or not.
No other could choose for me.
Like the children of Israel there have been times of rebellion.
Times of forgetfulness.
Times that led to bondage.
The good news is that there have also been times of redemption.
Times of rescue and restoration.
I can't choose for you and you can't choose for me.
But this one thing I know...
We Are All Chosen.

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by man, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him shall by no means be put to shame."

1 Peter 2:4-6 (NKJV)